Avatar Orchestra Metaverse's "Fragula" as captured by Evo Szuyuan

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (AOM) is a playful and highly interactive collaboration that can only take place in a virtual environment, wherein several people upload various sound samples and, against a score, activate them, thus becoming musical instruments themselves.

To facilitate the viewer's understanding of who is performing, each avatar wears a rounded object on its back, and as the sounds are triggered, that avatar spins on an axis. According to Gumnosophistai Nurmi (aka Leif Inge), the inspiration for that shape is Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase."


Nude Descending a Staircase from the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Now Machinimator Evo Szuyuan has created "Fragula," the best video I've seen to date that documents this strange and cutting-edge phenomenon that is taking place in Second Life.



Fragula credits

Composer: Miulew Takahe
Instruments and animations: Bingo Onomatopoeia

Participating in the Orchestra are:
Bingo Onomatopoeia, aka Andreas Müller (Regensburg)
BlaiseDeLaFrance Voom, aka Biagio Francia (Agropoli)
Bluewave Ogee, aka Leslie Jarmon (Austin)
DeThomas Dibou, aka Detlef Thomas (Regensburg)
Evo Szuyuan, aka Brigit Lichtenegger (Rotterdam)
Free Noyes, aka Pauline Oliveros (Kingston)
Goodwind Seiling, aka Sachiko Hayashi (Stockholm)
Gumnosophistai Nurmi, aka Leif Inge (Oslo)
Hars Hefferman, aka Harold Schellinx (Paris)
Humming Pera, aka Tina M. Pearson (Victoria)
Ida Aabye, aka Nathalie Fougeras (Paris/Brussel)
Lizsolo Mathilde, aka Liz Solo (St. John's)
Loop Luo, aka Loopland (Regensburg)
Maximillian Nakamura, aka Shintaro Miyazaki (Berlin)
Maxxo Klaar, aka Max D. Well (Regensburg)
Miulew Takahe, aka Björn Eriksson (Sollefteå)
Nnoiz Papp, aka Tobias Becker (Haan)
Paco Mariani, aka Chris Wittkowsky (Regensburg)
Weave Noyes, aka Sarah Weaver (New York)
Wirxli Flimflam, aka Jeremy Owen Turner (Vancouver)

Oh, Chouchou!

In a few hours, Chouchou - the post-pop/alternative musical group that exists only in Second Life - will open their new sim to the public. There is no build to speak of there, and yet, it is a masterpiece. The setting is the seashore... a place so pristine that it has only been touched by the tides. Like the HUD that is offered there - take it and wear it instantly - the effect is cinematic, poetic, and not unlike the feeling one has upon returning to a beach after a great storm. The air is electric... and ethereal.


juliet Heberle and arabesque Choche at Chouchou

Being with juliet and arabesque is like being with spirits. Pale yet strong, they dramatize the scenery. juliet is slim, breakable and girlish. arabesque is in posession of himself and all that surrounds him. Their dynamic is so balanced it leaves me in awe. Ying and Yang. To seek further meaning would spoil it.




This week they will release two songs, in addition to the instrumental in the video I featured here yesterday. How to describe Rafflesia? It has the double vision of the Beatles' "She's leaving home," and elegant electronica. Heterotopia is music to drive by, to live by.

Oh, Chouchou, you are going to rise to the top so fast... like comets, you will. This is no hype.

When it is open, you may teleport to Chouchou directly from here.

Chouchou is searching for - and finding - new ways to make and present its music

Our own juliet Heberle, and arabesque Choche... known to us as the Japanese musical group that only exists in Second Life: Chouchou, have created a new and unbelievably stunning video. Without further ado...

Mr. Pixel goes to Washington

Update: You can view the testimonial here.

Our own Larry Pixel (aka Larry Johnson, PhD), CEO of the New Media Consortium (NMC), testified today, along with Philip Linden (aka Philip Rosedale) - soon to step down as CEO to become Chairman of the Board of Second Life's Linden Lab - before Congress and its Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. The topic: "Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium.” You can read what Larry had to say here.

It's a shame that Philip didn't publish his prepared remarks on the web, as well. For the record, I'd be happy to share my thoughts with the marketing and public relations team of Linden Lab. I think they need to pull up their socks, don't you?

Relief for the 2D man

I just had the pleasure of meeting a delightful 2D individual by the name of Dammit Dawg, as well as the creator of his avatar, Holly Loll.



Sadly, Dammit shared with me that "Being born 2D in a 3D world is full of challenges. First, there is the discrimination and instant banning from certain sims to put up with. Second, there is the problem of getting used by 3D avatars as a coat rack or clothes hanger. Third, there is the lack of any 2D office furniture for the 2D man."

The good news is that Holly realized that she couldn't just create 2D peeps and not provide them with some kind of infrastructure, such as a 2D office line. Dammit admits that he was initially skeptical - especially when he saw the first thing she made for him (a paper shredder) - but everything worked out in the end.

You can visit Holly's 2D village for Dammit and others like him - and try out the paper shredder yourself - at a site where fellow hobo Dingle Doigts is sponsoring a build contest, by teleporting here.


An Easter portrait of the Dammit family

Dammit also informed me that the 2D avatars are a Second Life homage to Matt Feazell who used to draw the mostly underground Cynical Man series. "I loved that cartoon in college (he used to draw them in a nice cafe across the street from where I did my homework at a much grungier and more dangerous cafe in Minneapolis), and would wait every week to read his stuff," said Dammit.

TRON fans treat

Via AngryBeth Shortbread, this killer remake of the Lightcycle scene from TRON by freres hueon; soundtrack taken from the film by writer/director Steven Lisberger)

"A world inside the computer where man has never been. Never before now."

Tron
Uploaded by freres-hueon

CodeBastard Redgrave splashes the grid - and NPIRLers - with RED

We are avatars in our virtual world, yes... little dollies we dress up, when you get right down to it. But personalities are often more distinct and discernable - larger than life, really - in this format.

Such is the case of a passionate, charming, and funny woman who rezzed the same month I did, some 14 months ago. Add to this that she is 7'6" tall, wears bright red from her locks to her toes, and is sporting the name CodeBastard Redgrave... Well, you just know there isn't going to be a bland pixel about her.



Turns out that her powers of persuasion are over the top, too. She's talked the knickers off of some of the most interesting ladies in Second Life... including a few of our own! In the tradition of the fabled Vargas pin-up girls, she stripped them down, splashed them with red, and then captured the moment for all eternity.


Jurin Juran

Amalthea Blanc

Lainy Voom

Today at 11am SLT, she is unveiling Boudoir Rouge - a collection of those photographs - at her gallery: Code Red. Dress code? C'mon... Hazard a guess! Teleport directly from here.

Starbase C3's new sim-wide Skybase Vigilance

all photography by Wellington Bahram

Cube Inada (aka Larry Rosenthal), has been creating and running 3D virtual worlds online since 1996, beginning with Starbase C3, the first real-time 3D world on AOL. Since 2006, Cube has integrated Starbase C3 and its active membership into Second Life with numerous builds throughout the grid, including the Interdimensional Alien Flying Circus.



Now Cube has launched Skybase Vigilance (teleport directly from here), an open-ended role-playing sim and Starship building/Sci-Fi community, consisting of a large floating space station, a command ship, space docks for the fleet, and a hidden alien moon base, all located above a mysterious gas giant planet, Olia.



"We created a unique back story and an immersive 3D environment that not only fits within the larger Starbase C3 Universe, but also works well with our many other locations," said Cube.



Primarily staffed by bio-engineered avatars and remote telepresence drones, Starbase C3 functions as a 22nd century "Area 51." You can read up on the storyline here. Cube has also created over a dozen ships, fighters, gunships, shuttles and other vehicles for his active community.

Avatar puppeteering for Second Life in 2008?

Insofar as virtual worlds are concerned, puppeteering is the real-time, user-manipulated animation of avatar joints, and nope, it's not available in-world yet, though Linden Lab and its Studio Shiny (an SL developmental lab) have indicated that they are behind it, or were behind it or...

The first goal is to create a Physical Avatar, meaning that people will be able to maneuver the joints of their avatar. Later releases would feature much more, including real-time gesturing through the use of your keyboard or some other external device, users being able to build and save their own gestures, without having to use external modeling applications, exporting, and uploading; and something they call "ragdoll friction," relative the force of impact.

I found this Linden Lab press release dating back to August of 2006, where the capability was announced and presented. On the Second Life Wiki, however, it states that this project "is being put on the back burner until 2008." *Glances at calendar.* At the end of the Wiki page, it goes on to say: "Project in hibernation so that developers have time to devote to projects that increase Second Life's stability and performance."

*crosses eyes, smirks, wrinkles forehead, raises one eyebrow*

Looky what popped in my video feed last tonite, by Jeffrey Ventrella, former senior developer at Linden Lab, who was also responsible for developing Flexi Prims and the FollowCam.



On his comprehensible and informative website, Jeffrey goes on to say, "As of now (March, 2008) the technology has not yet been fully deployed, but I hope it will soon be re-visited, as I think it would add a level of expressivity and direct expression to the avatars in Second Life."

Furthermore, he says,"This technology has the potential to provide a way for residents to manipulate their avatars through motion-capture, using input devices similar to the Wii."

*whistles and... puts left foot in, puts left foot out, puts left in, and shakes it all about*

New Real Life - Second Life physical interface

Last night, musician and technologist Komuso Tokugawa attended a Second Life-related event at the bar BarTube in Tokyo. While there, he met with several people who are collaborating on a Havok 4 sim owned by Softbank (the company that acquired failing Vodafone and turned it around), to work with prototypes and try out new ideas.

According to Komuso, Tori Teatime and a couple of other people from the Softbank-sponsored sim have developed a mechanism that allows for an interesting new physical interface between Real Life and Second Life.

One person would stand there in the bar tilting a 3-axis accelerometer that was hooked up to a modified client to send control data via chat.



Now here's where it gets interesting... the accelerometer had a built in tilt sensor, and as he tilted it, so did a box full of avatars - some of them quite large - that was being held by a robot in-world.



You can visit that robot in Second Life (teleport directly from here), but somebody in Real Life needs to be tilting that accelerometer to make it all happen. Now that the Second Life client is opensource, we can expect more of these exciting developments. More pics and info on Komuso's blog.

Komuso, by the way, is the musician and particle master who - together with MoShang Zhao - gave us the real time-Internet/SL music jam SynaesthAsia, undoubtedly one of the best events I've ever attended in Second Life. Here's a great video of it by multi-talented Osprey Therian.

Prados Azules - it may be blue, but it's hot

Barcelonian Anibal Shui and his group, Mosi-Mosi Metaverse have created Prados Azules (teleport directly from here), an unconventional and eccentric blue world of their own liking, as an "experimental laboratory for cultural events, product presentations, the exploration of ideas, and more."



Their first efforts have included in-world events featuring real time streaming of audio and video into Second Life of the Real Life music festivals: D.R.O.I.D in Bristol, England with Luke Vibert as the headliner, and the Desparrame Vol.1 Festival in Bilbao, Spain.



While this video is rather long and imbued with plenty of particles, you can "get the picture." Looks like they had fun.



Anibal is open to suggestions and fresh ideas for future collaborations and ways that Prados Azules (which means Blue Hills) can be utilized.